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A Natural History of the New World: The Ecology and Evolution of Plants in the Americas
The paleoecological history of the Americas is as complex as the region is broad: stretching from the Arctic Circle to Tierra del Fuego, the New World features some of the most extraordinary vegetation on the planet. But until now it has lacked a complete natural history. Alan Graham remedies that with A Natural History of the New World. With plants as his scientific muse, Graham traces the evolution of ecosystems, beginning in the Late Cretaceous period (about 100 million years ago) and ending in the present, charting their responses to changes in geology and climate.
By highlighting plant communities’ roles in the environmental history of the Americas, Graham offers an overdue balance to natural histories that focus exclusively on animals. Plants are important in evolution’s splendid drama. Not only are they conspicuous and conveniently stationary components of the Earth’s ecosystems, but their extensive fossil record allows for a thorough reconstruction of the planet’s paleoenvironments. What’s more, plants provide oxygen, function as food and fuel, and provide habitat and shelter; in short, theirs is a history that can speak to many other areas of evolution.
A Natural History of the New World is an ambitious and unprecedented synthesis written by one of the world’s leading scholars of botany and geology.
By highlighting plant communities’ roles in the environmental history of the Americas, Graham offers an overdue balance to natural histories that focus exclusively on animals. Plants are important in evolution’s splendid drama. Not only are they conspicuous and conveniently stationary components of the Earth’s ecosystems, but their extensive fossil record allows for a thorough reconstruction of the planet’s paleoenvironments. What’s more, plants provide oxygen, function as food and fuel, and provide habitat and shelter; in short, theirs is a history that can speak to many other areas of evolution.
A Natural History of the New World is an ambitious and unprecedented synthesis written by one of the world’s leading scholars of botany and geology.
- GenresScience
408 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2010
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January 25, 2024
A truly magisterial synthesis. It is a difficult task trying to get across the vast shifts in space and time and the various axes along which so many factors change, particularly when there is still a lot to be inferred. This is literally the result of a lifetime's work.
Thomas Halliday, in his Otherlands, attempted something comparable, employing time- and space-travel to get across paleoenvironments and their denizens. Unfortunately, Graham is not nearly so talented a writer as Halliday, but he has also taken on a much larger task. Halliday drops us into specific locations and times, employing a slight-of-hand "push" in that he chooses those for which there is good evidence, and we the reader don't know that this both (a) makes our read richer and (b) makes Halliday's job easier. Halliday's book is fantastic, if you haven't read it please do so.
In contrast, Graham is attempting to cover the past 200 million years of history of North and South America, as completely as possible. He fills in several axes. He traces the development in time and space of specific modern ecosystems: their ranges, climatic envelopes, constituent species, and so on. In focused chapters, he traces the changes within various subregions of each continent. In a later chapter, he takes walks from pole to pole at several time intervals, describing what we would see. Throughout, he makes shorter excursions from coastlines inland, down or up mountain slopes, and across landscapes in which mountain ranges are emerging.
This is a book to read many times, that is if this is a subject you wish to master. Graham was likely the best we will have for some time in this area, and he's given us a magnum opus with which to begin.
Thomas Halliday, in his Otherlands, attempted something comparable, employing time- and space-travel to get across paleoenvironments and their denizens. Unfortunately, Graham is not nearly so talented a writer as Halliday, but he has also taken on a much larger task. Halliday drops us into specific locations and times, employing a slight-of-hand "push" in that he chooses those for which there is good evidence, and we the reader don't know that this both (a) makes our read richer and (b) makes Halliday's job easier. Halliday's book is fantastic, if you haven't read it please do so.
In contrast, Graham is attempting to cover the past 200 million years of history of North and South America, as completely as possible. He fills in several axes. He traces the development in time and space of specific modern ecosystems: their ranges, climatic envelopes, constituent species, and so on. In focused chapters, he traces the changes within various subregions of each continent. In a later chapter, he takes walks from pole to pole at several time intervals, describing what we would see. Throughout, he makes shorter excursions from coastlines inland, down or up mountain slopes, and across landscapes in which mountain ranges are emerging.
This is a book to read many times, that is if this is a subject you wish to master. Graham was likely the best we will have for some time in this area, and he's given us a magnum opus with which to begin.
Displaying 1 of 1 review